


Trust & Kittens

by EzzyDean



Category: Free!
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Kittens
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-03
Updated: 2013-12-03
Packaged: 2018-01-03 09:25:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,518
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1068805
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EzzyDean/pseuds/EzzyDean
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rin has been distracted for a couple weeks and Ai knows why.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Trust & Kittens

It had been pouring rain for the better part of the day and with the occasional bouts of thunder and lightning crashing through the coach had given the swimmers a free day from practice.  The announcement coming over the speakers had brightened the mood of pretty much every swimmer.  Their captain had been running them hard the last week and any break was good.  With lightened hearts the boys all returned their attention to their teachers, happy to be out of range of the captain for a day.

Nitori had the afternoon off from class, his teacher was out with some stomach flu and they had been dismissed early, and was relaxing on his bunk.  Not having to go to practice just meant he could stay curled up in his bed until dinner.  Maybe he could get Rin or Seijuro to join him later.  Or maybe both.  It was always nice to curl up under the blankets with both of them.  The pounding of the rain on the window was lulling him to sleep and he snuggled under his blankets.  There was a quick rap on the door and he called out a drowsy “Come in” even as it opened.

"Hey, Nitori."

"Seijuro!"  Sleepiness instantly forgotten Nitori pulled himself to the edge of his bunk and leaned down for a kiss which the captain gave him with a smile.  "You finally made it out of classes!"  He grinned when he was allowed to pull back.

"Yeah.  So where's Rin?"  A loud crack of thunder hit and Nitori jumped a little, answering the question in a distracted tone as he eyed the window.

"Probably feeding the kittens at the old school building."  Another crack rattled the window and his head whipped around, blue eyes wide.  "I mean-"  He stopped when he saw the gleam in Seijuro's eyes before the older teen turned around and left without saying another word.  He gulped and leapt for his phone.  This could be really bad for Rin.

[Ai: I'm so so so so so so so sorry Matsuoka-senpai!]

Rin gave his phone a confused look as he held out a handful of dry food to the kitten sniffing his shoe.  It had been awhile since Nitori had called him Matsuoka-senpai.  A grey kitten perched itself proudly on his shoulder and barely flinched at the peal of thunder that shook the abandoned building.  Which was more than he could say for himself.  Wind kicked some branches against the building as he sent a quick reply.

[Rin: What are you babbling about?]

[Ai: Seijuro asked me where you were and the thunder distracted me and I accidentally told him and I'm so so so so sorry.]

[Rin: Is that all? Don't worry about it.]

Well he couldn’t keep the kittens a secret forever.  He had figured the captain would find out about the kittens sooner or later.  He had just hoped they would maybe be a little bigger before anyone else found them.  The door slammed open causing the grey kitten on his shoulder to stiffen for a moment and Rin bit back a bark of laughter at the sight of Samezuka's swim team captain drenched to the bone and in a daze as he took in the sight of Rin sitting crosslegged on the floor with kittens surrounding him.

"What's this?"

"Um these,” he gestured to the balls of fur around him, “are kittens.  Have you never seen a kitten before?"  A sharp sting caught his attention and he looked down at the striped kitten pawing at his knee for his attention.  “Yes, yes I see you there.”  He muttered and swapped his phone for the kitten, easily fitting it in one hand.  The kitten nuzzled at his fingers and purred when he rubbed it’s ears.

"I knew you had been keeping something from me.  Why are you in the rain with kittens?"

"You're the one in the rain.  I am perfectly dry."  He threw a towel at Seijuro and chuckled as he scrambled to catch it.  "You're gonna catch a cold if you don't dry off and warm up some."  He patted the pile of blankets he was sitting on and waved the captain over.  There was nothing but the sound of rain falling outside the mostly empty building and meowing as the kittens crawled over each other to get Rin’s attention.  He pulled out a little container of treats from his bag and shook it gently, smiling at the way the kittens perked up at the sound and started scrambling up his knees to get closer to the treats.  He shook out one treat for each kitten and tossed the rest back in his bag.  Grabbing a small bowl from beside the blankets on the floor he emptied it outside before refilling it with water from his bottle.  Seijuro followed Rin back to his seat, grabbing an extra blanket to wrap around himself, and sat down behind him.  He pulled Rin into his lap and watched as the younger teen played with the kittens, laughing and cooing softly at them.

“You’ve been playing with kittens.”  Seijuro’s voice was soft and Rin wasn’t entirely sure the captain was talking to him but he answered anyway.

“I’ve been taking care of them for a couple weeks.  I found them while I was out for a run.  I guess something happened to the mother.”

“I’ve been worrying and it turns out you’ve just been playing with kittens?”

“Sei?”  Rin tilted his head back and stared at his boyfriend.  “Are you feeling ok?”  The captain just shook his head and nuzzled into Rin’s neck for a moment with a soft sigh.

“Kittens.”

They sat in silence as the kittens continued to play.  One was chasing Rin’s hand back and forth and another was using Seijuro’s blanket for climbing practice.  The other two were play fighting each other and Rin smiled as the grey one pinned the other on down.  It was obviously his favorite and part of him almost wished he could keep it.  Rain continued to fall and the day grew darker but they were both content to just sit and watch.  

It would be nice to live somewhere someday that would allow them to have pets Rin decided.  A cat would be nice.  Ai would probably want anything small and fluffy.  A rabbit maybe.  Sei would most likely go along with anything they wanted.  But he smiled as he pictured Seijuro coming home one day with a big goofy dog or something.  The ringing on Rin’s phone startled him out of his daydreams and he quickly answered it.

“What is it now, Ai?”

“Sorry again.  I was just wondering if Sei embarrassed you, or himself, too much yet?”

“I told you it’s fine and no he didn’t.  But I think you broke him.”  Rin lifted up his grey kitten and set it atop Seijuro’s head.  Both the captain and the kitten blinked at him warily and he had to pull his phone away from his ear to snap a quick picture to send to their boyfriend.  “Look.”  Nitori’s laughter could be heard through the phone even before Rin brought it back to his ear.

“You’re the one probably looking adorable with the kittens to begin with.  I think that’s what broke him.”

“Well either way his brain’s kinda broken.”

“Ah whatever.  Just don’t stay out too long, ok?  It’s almost time to eat and if you guys don’t get back you’ll end up sick.”

“You don’t want to nurse us back to health?”  He could picture Ai rolling his eyes and grinning at the image of them bedridden while he hovered over them, feeding them soups and getting blankets for them.

“As appealing as that sounds I’d rather you two just stay healthy to begin with.”

“Spoilsport.  Don’t worry we’ll be back soon.”  Tossing the phone into his bag he stood up and stretched, watching in amusement as the kitten settled itself contently onto Seijuro’s shoulder.  Seeing the soft smile on Rin’s face as he watched the kittens Seijuro made a decision.  With a satisfied nod he placed the grey kitten on the blankets and pulled Rin back to the dorms.

 

No one knew the exact reason the kittens were suddenly around the dorms but there had been glimpses of pictures of Rin asleep with kittens crawling on him and they figured that was enough of a reason.  Also unknown was how exactly the captain had talked the school into letting them keep the kittens.  There were some rumors about Nitori crying in the teacher’s offices but nothing was ever confirmed and when asked Nitori would just grin and say that he was simply lucky and usually got what he wanted in the end.   All in all the captain was happy once again and they weren’t being forced through mind-numbingly difficult drills.  So they happily adopted them as a kind of team mascot, even going so far as to find little shark outfits for them to wear.  Samezuka had a hell of a swim team, even if they were a little odd at times.

 

**Author's Note:**

> This could tentatively be set after the events of Trust but it could also stand alone in any of my AUs where Ai & Sei & Rin are in a relationship.


End file.
